Chicago Marathon provides reminder of Kelvin Kiptum and running’s great unknown
A year after the Kenyan’s historic world-record run in the Windy City – and just eight months after his tragic death in a traffic accident – Jack Rathborn examines the legacy of the marathon runner and what could have been
Carey Pinkowski, the Chicago Marathon’s long-standing race director, braced himself near the 14-mile marker at the 2023 London Marathon. Sheltered from the rain, which had just started to add a slick layer to the capital’s roads, his breath was soon taken away.
Positioned in good time to support his daughter running in the mass race, Pinkowski was left in a daze as an isolated Kelvin Kiptum glided past. The Kenyan had already separated himself from the elite men’s field, surging back towards Buckingham Palace with real grace. He would finish in an astonishing 2hrs 1min 25secs – 100 seconds faster than the previous course record. It was almost three minutes quicker than his nearest rival and just 16 seconds off Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record. Pinkowski turned to his wife and uttered: “We’ve got to get this guy!” And it was then that the battle between the prestigious Abbott World Marathon Majors – London, Tokyo, Chicago, Boston, New York and Berlin – to attract the strongest marathon fields began in earnest.
Bypassing the track, which proved fertile ground for legendary Olympic medalists Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele before they took to the riches on offer from the roads, Kiptum made his debut over 26.2 miles in December 2022, winning the blazing fast Valencia marathon in 2hrs 1min and 53secs, the fastest debut of all time.
After destroying the field in London five months later, the race was on to secure Kiptum’s next marathon, with the presumption that he would snatch Kipchoge’s world record.
That faith was duly rewarded in the Windy City’s famous race last October when Kiptum, so far out in front he was running against the clock only, reimagined what was possible over the mythical distance, chipping away at Kipchoge’s mark by 34 seconds to finish in a new world record of 2hrs 35secs.
“It was a special performance,” Pinkowski tells The Independent. “He seized the moment, it was absolutely amazing. I still think he was a little conservative in Chicago. The first half was a little slower than we expected.
“The crowning moment, though, and the character of the man, he met [former world record-holder] Khalid Khannouchi, the first thing he did was go back up the finish line to find him, as the last man to break the world record in Chicago, to thank him for what he had done in the sport.
“He was aware of who had come before him, the tradition of Chicago. He’s indelibly etched in the memory of all of us and in our hearts. I don’t see anybody getting close to that time for a while.”
The beloved Kipchoge had won 15 of his first 17 marathons to inspire a generation, even breaking two hours in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in 2019. Yet in a sport making enormous strides due to technology, with carbon-plated shoes packed with super foam, Kiptum was poised to redefine the perceived limits of human physiology.
With a sub-two-hour attempt and the Olympics in Paris in view, there was immense excitement for Kiptum’s 2024. Yet four months after the exhilarating dash around Chicago, tragedy struck, with the shocking news of Kiptum’s sudden death in a road accident in Kaptagat, Kenya.
Gone at just 24, the running world was plunged into mourning. A life and career snatched far too soon. His star was shining bright enough to illuminate one of the purest sports. And running had just started to enjoy its latest revolution thanks to performances of Kiptum’s quality, which have filtered down to the average amateur runner, with Chicago and Boston slashing their entry standards once again this year.
“He was a sublimely talented athlete, but also a very sweet guy, humble and kind,” says Pinkowski. “All of our staff fell in love with him. For all of us, it was heartbreaking.
“It was what he could have done. He had just scratched the surface. I think he would have become the face of marathon running. There’s no doubt in my mind he’d have run away from everybody in Paris [at the 2024 Olympics]. He could’ve got close to two hours, no doubt in my mind that in Rotterdam, Berlin or Chicago, when he came back, he could’ve run under two hours. He was that special of an athlete, just amazing.”
The legacy of Kiptum and that audacious run a year ago, which included a negative split of 61 seconds, is one of mystery. He ran the second half-marathon that day in 59mins 47secs.
That sizzling time alone is made more impressive when you consider that Sir Mo Farah is the only Briton to ever run that distance in isolation quicker (59mins 7secs).
“It is a frustration to all of us that we won't witness what I truly know he was capable of,” Sebastian Coe told BBC Sport Africa after Kiptum’s passing.
“For sure he would have broken it. It would have been [Roger] Bannister and Edmund Hillary, both of them, wrapped into one.”
This weekend at the Chicago Marathon, the elite athletes will wear Kiptum’s initials and “2:00:35” on their bibs as a tribute. The wait for another runner capable of breaking the world record, let alone the two-hour barrier, may be long. Sunday will crown a new champion and add further context to just how special Kiptum was.
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